Special

Day 25

My blistered hands gripped his wrists, trying to pry away from his grip. He wrapped his fingers around my neck and pushed to the wall. My back collided against the wooden barricade, a crack was heard. I cried in pain, I cried for him to stop it. But he tightened his hold, and suddenly, my grip wasn’t at all that tight anymore.

I wanted to help him, I shouted at him. He shouted back. ”Where’s my mother?!”

I met Gerard twenty-four nights and twenty-five days ago in a hospital, and I could easily tell that there was something wrong with him. Well, not wrong, but imperfect. Everybody had their flaws, but I don’t think you could really call his imperfection a flaw. There was something special about him.

Special. That’s the word. He was special in the most unusual way possible. He wasn’t normal. Explaining what he is may as well be the hardest thing in the world. Nobody’s ever bothered to, though. At least that’s what he tells me. He doesn’t talk much, more like he talks to himself.

Gerard was the kind of person you would go to when you needed somebody to talk to. If you needed somebody to talk to that didn’t really understand. Didn’t need to understand. Exactly the person I need in my life. He would always forget what I had to say, and him being like that, nobody else but I would ever know about my little secrets.

He didn’t have much people to talk to, either. Just his brother, Mikey, and probably the rest of his family. Plus me, of course. He was one of those socially disabled people. He never came out of his house, only for school and on Sundays where he would go to church being the good Christian boy he is.

I live five blacks away from him, how would I know about this, right? I slept there, I eat there, but nobody that lives in his house would ever notice. Except for Mikey, who I feel deep admiration for. Not in that way, never. I would tell you why, but I don’t think I should.

Gerard was a perfectionist too. Everything he had was in order. Barely passing test papers, drawings, writing utensils, everything. He was someone you would go to for a pen if you didn’t have one and being the person that he is, he would ask for it back in the end of the class. But nobody ever bothered to ask for one.

Gerard was robotic too. I found out that if you tell him ‘I love you’, he’ll say it back. It was how he was raised. Out of observation, I noticed his mom kept telling him that she loved him and like I said, he would always say it back. It was the same with everything else. If he was ordered to do something, he would, which is the thing I hated about him the most.

He was probably the most innocent thing in the world too. I’ve never once heard him swear or tell a lie. Another thing I hated about him. He couldn’t take care of himself. Which is dumb, since he’s seventeen years old. That’s why I was there, I had to protect him. Like this is why I was born on Earth.

But it was taking over me. Like he was controlling me without noticing. I didn’t like it.

Stupid, gullible, vulnerable, naive, innocent, and special Gerard.
He’ll be the death of me.